Misdirected Hope
by Mosca89
Summary: Fifth year is when things start to change. Things that Lily thought were certain - James Potter is an ass, Severus is her best friend, Hogwarts is safe - are beginning to shift under her feet. The more she tries to catch up, the deeper into the dark she sinks. There were fewer murder plots in third year. (Sirius/Remus. Sort of Lily/James. Secondary OC. Not Snape-negative.)
1. Chapter 1

Lily Evans was not used to being the first one noticed. She had always been observant (which Remus Lupin called "nosy" and James Potter called "brilliant", and privately she agreed with them both). But the first time she took notice of the girl was in Care of Magical Creatures class. Lily didn't think she would've looked at the girl at all if she hadn't followed the girl's stare back to her dark eyes. Once she saw her, however, she didn't really know how she'd missed her before. The girl was every inch of six feet, somehow managing to straddle the line between looking like a piece of taffy stretched too far and a mountain placed in the middle of class. Her black hair fell in a single, utilitarian braid over the deep green hood of her school robes, and she'd shunned the thick-heeled boots that were popular with the fifth-years this term for ones with sturdier, simpler tread. One of the enchanted fireproof blankets Professor Kettleburn had attempted to helpfully hand out was draped over her arm.

The girl noticed Lily noticing. She suddenly seemed intensely interested in Professor Kettleburn's excited explanation on the difference in temperament between the diamond-crusted fire crab that she held and the caged ruby-studded one that several of the Slytherin boys were eyeing nervously. Lily, not one to give up her noticing just because she'd been caught, could see the edges of the girl's ears turning bright red.

"Evans!"

Lily closed her eyes and set her teeth. "What, Potter?" She rolled her eyes away from the girl and found Potter thrusting an emerald-covered fire crab towards her.

"I bring you this thoroughly tamed fire crab, which shines with the same, er-"

"Green-ness," Sirius Black offered from where he was experimentally prodding a stick into a cage of juvenile fire crabs.

"Green-ness!" Potter repeated. "Yes, which shines with the same green-ness of your eyes!"

Lily looked at the crab. It glowered out at her from under the hood of its shell, looking maybe less tame than James claimed. "Well, I've already managed to get this one quiet all on my own, thanks," she said. She pointed to the cage she'd been cleaning and the sleeping sapphire fire crab inside.

"Right, but this one is _green_!" Potter insisted.

"We've established that you're not color-blind, Potter." Lily eyed the fire crab again. Six legs bristled from under its shell. "Would you put that down? I don't think it's-"

Before she could finish her warning, several explosions occurred all at once:

The end of the fire crab exploded in a spectacular display of sparks and flame.

James Potter's eyebrows exploded with the stink of burned hair.

The girl who'd been noticing Lily exploded into motion and flung her fireproof blanket onto the fire crab.

Sirius Black exploded into laughter.

"Christ, Prongs! Your face!" he cackled.

James reached one soot-blackened hand up to touch where his eyebrows used to be, then sighed mournfully. "Where's Remus?" he asked Sirius, finally accepting Lily's rejection and turning to look for the much calmer boy of their quartet.

"He won't help you this time, he said he's done with it," Sirius reminded him.

"Yeah, well, bet you five Galleons I can convince him if I can manage to get up a good sniffle by the time we find him."

Lily looked up at the girl, who now stood a few feet away looking equally uncomfortable and satisfied. Professor Kettleburn hurried over to pat the girl's shoulder approvingly. "Well done, Sera! That's excellent reflexes, my girl!" He laughed heartily, but the girl didn't smile.

"Thanks," Lily managed to cut in over Kettleburn's new wave of instructions to James and Sirius on how to carefully bundle the crab back into its cage.

The girl - Sera, Lily assumed - shoved her bangs out of her eyes and shrugged. "That Potter kid's an idiot," she said, by way of acceptance.

Lily snorted. "I thought that was a well-known fact."

"I'd never had the opportunity to see it in action, though," Sera said, finally cracking a slight smile.

"If you wait around long enough, he gives free demonstrations five or six times a day." Lily extended her hand. "I'm Lily Evans."

"Sera Vilhjalmsson." The girl shook it and tossed her braid back over her shoulder. "Does he bother you a lot?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Every blasted day since I set foot on the train in our first year," she said. "He's not quite as bad as he seems, though that really isn't saying much."

"I'm surprised he's still got all his limbs." Sera squinted over at where James and Sirius were attempting to herd the remaining fire crabs into cages using sticks. Peter Pettigrew, the round, rat-faced final piece of the foursome, hovered nearby, helpfully dousing the small fires from the fire crabs' rear ends with streams of water from his wand.

"Remus Lupin is rather talented with healing spells. I think he and Sirius usually bully him into fixing them so they don't have to get an earful from Madam Pomfrey," Lily said.

"Which one is that? The one with all the hair?" Sera asked.

"No, that's Sirius," Lily laughed. Slowly, the class broke up and began trickling back up the hill toward the castle. "Remus is ill, I think." Not that Lily didn't have her own personal opinions on the exact nature of his illness, but she kept those to herself.

"Lily!" Halfway up the hill, a few of her friends were waiting. Adara Steinberg waved at her.

"I should go, we're supposed to get a headstart on that Potions essay. Did Slughorn set you the same one? Three feet of parchment on the effects of chamomile on Sleeping Draughts?"

Sera nodded. "Due Tuesday."

"That _sneak_! Ours is due on Monday." Lily lifted her hand at her friends. "I'll probably see you in the library this weekend, then?"

"Maybe. Try not to let Potter kill you between now and then." Sera grinned at her, then headed toward the lake where a short, plump girl in a Hufflepuff jumper waited next to a tall, honey-blond Gryffindor.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily cajoled her friends into working on the essay until nearly two a.m., but she couldn't manage to get any of them out of bed before 8:00 the next morning. After Shannon Finnigan threw a pillow at her head, Lily gave up and headed to the library on her own. She swung by the Great Hall to pick up a few muffins, delicately stepping around James's argument with the Gryffindor Quidditch captain about the unfairness of Saturday morning practices. Remus, she noticed, was still missing from the Gryffindor table.

Lily loved the library on Saturday mornings. The air lay quieter over the stacks than it did during the week. Most of Hogwarts' students were still asleep, or had wandered outside to enjoy one of the remaining pleasant fall days left before winter descended on the castle with a fury. Lily picked up a few books as she meandered toward the darkest corners of the library. Madam Pince even relaxed enough in the absence of students to afford Lily a smile when she passed. Finally, Lily found a table tucked neatly into a corner between two shelves containing parchments written in a Chinese dialect that died with the fourth-century witch who'd invented it. In other words, not a highly trafficked area.

"Hi," came a voice from the dusty darkness.

"Remus?" Lily dropped her bag into a chair. "What're you doing back here?"

"I didn't really feel like watching James practice Quidditch this morning. Bit bright out there today." Remus's voice rasped softly from the darkness, until a candle floated near enough that Lily could see his face. He _was_ exceptionally pale, with dark smudges under his eyes from sleeplessness.

"Don't blame you for that in the slightest," Lily said with a sigh. She knew better than to inquire about his health. "Mind if I sit here?"

Remus waved his hand in a welcoming gesture. "Be my guest. Apologies in advance for the cursing."

"Slughorn's essay?" Lily guessed wryly.

"Beautiful and clever," Remus congratulated.

Lily laughed and began digging out her parchment and quill. "Muffin?" She offered a blueberry muffin to Remus, which he politely accepted after a quick check for Madam Pince.

The two worked quietly for a while, sharing books and quiet curses and Lily's talent for a charm that lifted ink blots from parchment. By the time they'd managed two and a half rolls of parchment, the muffins were gone, along with Lily's patience.

"I'm _starved._ And annoyed. But mostly starved," she said finally. Remus's stomach growled in agreement.

"I'll go grab sandwiches from the kitchens," Remus said, pushing up from the table. "You brought breakfast."

Lily was too hungry to argue. With Remus gone, her determination to finish the essay crumbled under protests from her empty stomach. She swept the muffin crumbs from the table and leaned back in her chair, letting her head fall back. From there, she could catch a glimpse of deep blue October sky out a nearby window. She watched a few owls swirling higher and higher in the air, catching warm drafts of air under widespread wings. They swooped and swung in unfathomable patterns. Lily wondered idly if any of the Divination professors had ever attempted to foretell the future based solely on owl flight.

"Sorry, erm...is this seat taken?"

Lily started out of her thoughts. "Wha?"

Sera hovered at the end of the aisle. "Is that seat taken?" she repeated.

Lily looked over at Remus's chair, then at the two other empty seats at the table. "No, not at all. Well, that one is, but it's just Remus, he won't mind. He's gone off to find lunch. He'll be back soon." She reached across the table to shuffle some of their books and spare parchments into a pile.

Sera sat where Lily cleared a space, dropping her bag under the table. Mud flecked through her dark braid and what looked like a growing bruise darkened her forearm. "Thanks. My friend tried to follow me in here, but she talks a lot."

"Too much conversation for a Saturday?" Lily laughed.

"Yes," Sera said, rolling her eyes. "Especially when she's trying to cheer me up."

"Something wrong?"

"Thorfinn Rowle," Sera said, by way of explanation.

"Ah." Lily nodded in understanding.

"You know him?" Sera asked.

Lily made a face. "I know _of_ him," she said. Her stomach twisted unpleasantly. Severus's voice rang in her ears again, over and over - _Mudblood, Mudblood, Mudblood_. The last she'd heard, he and Rowle were spending a lot of time together, doing Merlin knows what. Rowle was the Slytherin Quidditch captain; she'd overheard several loud (and probably true) complaints about his attempts at cursing other houses' players before matches.

"He's a prick," Sera said flatly.

"That's one word for it," Lily said. She rolled a quill between her finger and thumb, frowning at it. It was still hard to reconcile the idea of the quiet, sad child Sev had been four years ago with the angry boy he was becoming. Had already become.

"I'll probably quit after the match next week. I'm getting tired of telling them I'm not joining their stupid club."

"What club?" Lily looked up from her quill.

"The one where they go around being pricks to all the Muggleborns because they think they're special." Sera scowled at her parchment. "Gibbon came at me with his bat during practice. Probably won't be the last time."

"What? Why?" Lily sat up in her chair in alarm. She looked at the bruise on Sera's forearm. It was, she realized, approximately the width of a Beater's bat.

Sera shifted a little, streaks of pink suddenly appearing on her high, strong cheekbones. "He kept going on about how he and his bastard friends were going to practice the Conjunctivitis Curse on a bunch of Muggleborn third years if we beat Hufflepuff next Saturday. Rowle suggested the Slug-Vomiting Curse if we lose. I told him that if he tried either of them I'd curse them all so many times they'd wish they'd just stayed home this year. It went downhill from there."

Lily gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. She suddenly thought of the plump Hufflepuff girl who'd been waiting for Sera after class the day before. "That's horrible!"

Sera glanced up at her. Her eyes were even darker than Lily had realized, a deep brown-black reflecting flickers of candlelight in the sharp lines of her face. "I won't let them do it," she said, and Lily believed her. More than that, Lily expected that Gibbon would have believed her, too. Sera didn't really seem the sort of person who made threats without expecting to follow through on them.

"Good," Lily said finally.

"I had a feeling we'd need three sandwiches." Remus reappeared at the table. Delicious smells of hot roast beef and apples escaped into the dusty air from the paper bag in his hand.

"Oh, Remus, you're a _saint._ " Lily gratefully accepted the sandwich he handed her.

"Remus Lupin," he said to Sera, with an offered sandwich.

She took it with a nod of thanks. "Sera Vilhjalmsson."

"There's hand pies, too, though I'm afraid they might be a bit smushed." Remus fell into his chair, looking at his parchment with disdain. "I don't suppose you've found material for this last six inches, have you?"

"I haven't tried," Lily admitted. She chewed thoughtfully on her sandwich and squinted at Sera as she pulled books out of her bag. "Is there any difference between the third and fourth editions of _Magical Water Plants of the Highland Lochs_?"

There wasn't. But by mid-afternoon, the three had managed to eke out enough information to finish the essay, which Lily celebrated by sweeping her parchments and books into her bag with one grand gesture.

"If I never see another cup of chamomile tea as long as I live, I'll die happy," she declared as they began to slowly wind their way out of the library.

"Don't even say the word," Remus groaned.

"Sera!" someone called. A head popped out from around a shelf, followed by the rest of the short Hufflepuff Lily had seen the day before. "Where've you been? Rachel's gone and gotten herself into a fight with half the Slytherin Quidditch team, and she's threatening to go after the rest. Ellie's only just managed to keep her locked up in a classroom on the fourth floor. Aren't you in Gryffindor, too?"

It took Lily a moment to realize the last question was directed at herself. "Me? Oh. Yes, I am. He is, too."

Remus smiled at the girl, who puffed her brown hair out of her eyes in annoyance. "Gryffindors. Why can't any of you ever back down from a fight?" she demanded.

"It's not in our nature," Remus answered mildly.

"Sophie, leave them alone," Sera said. The streaks of pink had reappeared on her cheeks. "What happened with Rachel?"

"I don't know, she won't tell me. Ellie knows, but she won't tell me, either. No one tells me anything," the girl grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.

A muscle worked in Sera's jaw. She glanced over at Lily, then back down at Sophie.

"We're going to head up to the common room to drop our bags off, but we'll be by the lake later, if you need us. Remus is quite good with healing spells," Lily said. "And I'll see you in class Monday?"

"If she and my sister don't go getting themselves expelled," Sophie huffed before Sera could answer. Sera rolled her eyes and allowed the Hufflepuff to drag her toward the door by her sleeve.

Remus and Lily watched the two go for a moment. "Interesting girl," Remus said.

"She is. I didn't think there were any Slytherins left who weren't practicing Dark magic." Lily shifted her bag on her shoulder and the two began to follow the path Sera and Sophie had taken out of the library.

Remus didn't answer, but Lily could hear words in his silence. She let them stay silent. Remus liked to take his time with his words. They were mounting the stairs to the Gryffindor common room before he finally spoke.

"James thinks Severus is trying to curse him," he said slowly.

Lily stopped in the middle of the staircase. That wasn't what she had been expecting. "What?"

Remus paused to let a gaggle of Ravenclaws pass, then leaned against the railing. "Sirius thinks he's overreacting, of course, though he did suggest a round of preemptive strikes. James dissuaded him. He thinks Severus might be seriously trying to kill him this time."

"Sev wouldn't do that," Lily protested immediately, but the pit in her stomach swallowed any conviction from her words.

Remus heard it, too. He turned his head slightly to look at her from the corner of his green eyes. "I never thought of Severus as the sort of person who would resort to murder," he said quietly. "But I'm worried he may not be thinking rationally right now."

Slowly, Lily nodded. The weight of anxiety pressed against her chest, her ribs tightening to constrict the breath from her lungs. Severus's words rang in her ears again.

 _Mudblood. Mudblood. Mudblood._

"I can try to talk to him," she said finally.

"Are you sure that's...safe?" Remus ran one hand through his hair. "I know you'd like to believe he wouldn't hurt you, but from what we've heard about Severus's new friends..."

"Yeah...no, you're right." Lily drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her chest still felt too tight, like shoes from last winter. She pressed the heel of her hand against her breastbone to relieve the pressure. "I don't think Rowle would think twice about cursing my head off, even if Sev didn't."

"I'm not sure Rowle could curse his way out of a paper bag," he said wryly. When she didn't smile, he ducked his head to look up at her from under his long lashes in his best persuading look. It worked better on Lily than on James, though she'd seen it work wonders on Sirius. "Do me a favor, though, and don't go anywhere alone for a while?"

Lily wrinkled her nose in protest, but she nodded. "All right." She gave him a smile, though it felt like tearing her face in half. "Are you offering yourself as bodyguard?"

He chuckled. "I'm not sure I'd be a great bodyguard right now. Having trouble defending myself. But I will extend my services as escort." He lifted his arm grandly.

She giggled and took it. "A lady does always need an escort," she said. Remus's warmth against her soothed the tightness in her chest, giving her the comfort of a true friend. She rested her head on his thin shoulder briefly. The two headed back to the Gryffindor common room arm-in-arm.


	3. Chapter 3

James did look a bit more peaked than usual over the next week. Lily noted this, along with the increased presence of his friends. The Marauders - she rolled her eyes even thinking of the stupid moniker - spent a truly ridiculous amount of time together in the best of situations, but at the imminent threat, they drew ranks even closer. Lily didn't see a glimpse of Potter's messy hair without Sirius's dark head right next to it for days. Remus, still pale and drawn, often lingered close by. Lily saw less of Peter, though she expected that. She still wasn't entirely sure why the Sorting Hat had placed the timid boy in Gryffindor in the first place. For herself, she tried to make a point to find someone to walk to class with, and started joining the rest of her friends when they left the library instead of staying long into the night. When she climbed into the portrait hole in the evenings, surrounded by chattering girls, she caught looks of relief from Remus and James.

Even other students felt the tension during double classes with the Slytherins. James, Sirius, and Remus walked into Care of Magical Creatures in a tight knot. Sirius glowered over at Severus as the three made their way to desks in the far back corner of the classroom. The Slytherins glared back. When Kettleburn instructed them to pair up to write six popularly held ideas they had about dragons, to be discussed in the next class, Lily made a loud point of calling over to Sera.

"This is getting ridiculous," she muttered as Sera dropped her books onto the table next to Lily. The Gryffindors' glares were sharp on them, and the Slytherins were openly disgusted. "Someone's going to get hurt."

"People are already getting hurt," Sera said shortly. She laid her parchment out on the table and stared at it.

"Right, how's your friend? Or your friend's sister, I suppose." Lily tapped her quill against her own parchment, but she didn't write anything. It was hard to feel like the assignment was particularly important.

"She's all right. Her girlfriend's good at healing. Apparently Ellie studies Muggle medicine for fun, or something." Sera shrugged.

"What happened?" Lily asked. She glanced up at Kettleburn walked past, and quickly scribbled " _Breathe fire"_ on her parchment.

Sera copied what Lily wrote, then added underneath that, " _Live in caves"_. "Gibbon couldn't keep his mouth shut about cursing Muggleborn Hufflepuffs, and I guess Rachel heard. She said she wanted to give Gibbon something to think about in case he decided to go through with it."

"Is she a third-year? Your friend. Sophie, right?" Lily added " _Lives in caves_ " to her list, then tacked on " _Reptilian physiology"_ and _"Hoards valuable items"_.

Sera looked at her for a moment, frowning slightly. "Yeah, she is."

"She seemed really sweet. And pretty bossy for a Hufflepuff." Lily smiled at little at her. "I'm Muggleborn, too," she added quietly.

"Oh." Sera blinked, breaking her stare. Her cheeks flamed pink. She lowered her eyes to her parchment, then quickly wrote down the rest of Lily's list.

"That's not...it's not a problem, right?" Lily felt suddenly cold, her stomach dropping. She'd been so certain that Sera had been different. She wasn't like the rest of the Slytherins. Her friend was a Muggleborn Hufflepuff, for Merlin's sake. Not exactly the sort of friend that the pureblood Slytherin gits were clambering for.

"No," Sera said quickly. Her hand jerked, and a blot of ink stained her parchment. "Hell."

Lily tapped the spot with her wand before Sera could reach for hers. "Are you sure?"

Sera kept staring at the spot where the ink blot had been. Slowly, she let out a long breath that ruffled the edges of her black bangs. "Sometimes I think it must be easier. Your parents are probably just happy you're a witch, right? Not really expecting you to grow up to be...Minister of Magic or something," she said after a minute.

Lily laughed and rested her elbow on the table, dropping her chin into her hand. "No, not really. I mean, my little sister's kind of a brat about it, but I think she's just jealous. Mum just keeps asking when I get to start using magic to do the dishes."

Sera chuckled. "Yeah, my mother is hoping I'll do a little more than the dishes." She finally looked up at Lily from under her bangs.

"I'm sure you're going to do more than your mother could even dream of," Lily said. Pink glowed on Sera's face again, but she smiled.

"All right, students. Please leave your parchments on my desk, and remember that you'll be reporting to the groundskeeper's hut on Thursday. He'll be overseeing class while Madam Pomfrey works her magic on me for the next few days!" He waved his hand to dismiss the class, and they all groaned at the sight of the green, blistered flesh.

"What even happened to him?" Lily heard James ask Remus as they packed their bags and left class.

"Heard it was some kind of venomous thing he was trying to feed to some _other_ venomous thing the seventh years are supposed to tame," Remus answered.

"Wonder what would happen if we just fed the Slytherins to it?" Sirius said, loud enough for the Slytherins to hear as they poured into the hallway. Lily and Sera exchanged nervous glances over the shouts of, "Blood traitor!" and "Shove off, Black!". Lily managed a small wave at before the crowd separated them. As she followed the flow of red-hooded Gryffindors toward the common room, she found herself walking between Peter, Remus, James, and Sirius.

"Someone's going to get cursed," Peter was saying nervously to Remus. "I just don't want it to be _me_."

"Evans!" James said brightly on her right. He had Sirius's elbow in a death grip with one hand.

"Potter." Lily shot Remus a look, but he just grinned and shrugged.

"Care to join us for dinner?" James asked. They stopped outside the portrait hole, waiting for the crowd to thin as students elbowed their way in. Peter managed a wave before the push of the crowd drew him into the portrait hole.

Lily leaned against the staircase railing and sighed. "If I say no, are you going to try to sit next to me anyway?"

"Why, I would never!" James exclaimed, pressing his free hand to his chest as if she'd caused him the greatest of offenses. "Far be it from me to disrespect a lady's wishes."

Lily rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to retort, but Remus beat her to it. "Don't you have Quidditch tonight?" he reminded James.

"Oh. Right, yeah." James raked one hand through his hair, making the black mess even wilder than usual.

"Maybe Quidditch isn't the best idea right now, mate," Sirius said lowly. His dark eyes darted around as if he expected Severus to come leaping out from behind a painting. For the first time, Lily noticed that he'd gone nearly as pale as James.

"What, I'm supposed to just go and hide in my bed for the rest of the year?" James snapped back.

Sirius scowled. "Not the rest of the year. Just until we can-"

James interrupted him with a swift punch to Sirius's arm. Lily shifted away from the sudden squabble as Sirius retaliated, moving closer to Remus. She ignored her sudden burning curiosity; five years and she'd learned that ignorance was her best weapon when professors began dealing with the aftermath of a Black-Potter plan.

"Lily, could I convince you to come sit through practice with me?" Remus said over James and Sirius's bickering. "It'll probably take two of us to keep Sirius from doing something stupid."

"Is that even possible?" Lily snorted. Sirius shoved James into Lily, and she retaliated with an elbow jab to the ribs. "Stop it, both of you!"

"All right, all right!" James said, rubbing his ribs and glaring at Sirius.

Lily gave them both another stern stare, then turned back to Remus. "Sure. Could I get you to look at my Arithmancy runes while we're there? I know you're not taking it, but I've got to get someone else to look at them. Mine don't look anything like the book."


End file.
